Switching sides
by ginnys01
Summary: Hermione is about to marry Draco, looking in the mirror before walking down the aisle she reflects on how this came to be.


AN: one shot written for THC round 2

House: Badgers

Class Subject: Transfiguration

Story Category: Standard

Prompt: [Spell] Arresto Momentum

one shot written for the QLFC round 11

Position prompt: **BEATER 1:** A character defects from the light side to join the dark (Restriction: not Peter)

Additional prompts used:

Prompt 3: (quote) My gran could do better! And she's dead! - Gordon Ramsey

Prompt 5: (dialogue) "Wait a minute, what just happened here?"

Prompt 7: (dialogue) "Sometimes even the wrong train takes us to the right station"

Word count: 1467

Thanks to my fellow Badger ViolaMoon for beta-ing.

* * *

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. She couldn't believe she was getting married; in fact, she couldn't believe she had survived this long. If someone had told her 5 years ago that she would marry her Hogwarts enemy, she would have told them it was impossible. Of course, that was before he saved her, and before the life debt.

*hphphp*

_Hermione screamed. _

_Hermione often read books about people falling, but none of them really described what it was like. She didn't __see her life flashing in front of her eyes, she didn't have time to think about __previous regrets, nor did she think about all the things she had yet to __accomplish. She could only scream as she saw the ground coming closer and __closer to her, her mind blank. _

"_Arresto momentum!"_

_Hermione felt herself slowing down until she landed softly on the ground. Hermione didn't know when she had closed __her eyes but lying on the ground, she didn't open them immediately. It took a __minute for her brain to realise she had been saved._

"_Granger?" Opening her eyes, she saw the last person she thought she would see, standing in front of her._

"_Malfoy?"_

*hphphp*

To say Hermione had been shocked was an understatement. Not only had she fallen off the astronomy tower, but she had been saved by Malfoy. At the time she hadn't had a clue about Malfoy's crush on her, so she had spent quite some time wondering why he had saved her.

Madam Pomfrey had given her something for the shock, but it hadn't helped. Hermione had arrived in the Great Hall, still in shock, where Harry and Ron noticed that Hermione looked slightly pale.

Both boys had immediately asked if she was okay, but before she could say anything Ginny had arrived, with the rumour that Draco Malfoy had saved her.

*hphphp*

_The morning after her fall, she received a note from Malfoy, who wanted to meet up in the library. After taking her safety into account and informing the right people, not Harry and Ron who would definitely not let her meet up with Malfoy, she had gone to meet him._

"_Granger."_

"_Malfoy."_

"_You owe me a life debt."_

"_A what?"_

_Malfoy signed. "A life debt. I saved your life, now you need to save mine."_

"_Keep talking."_

_Twenty minutes later, Draco left the library as Hermione made her way over to the law section. Finding the correct book, she made her way over to the table in the centre of the room and sat down._

_Even though the book was heavy and thick, Hermione gently put it on the table and started looking through the index for the right chapter, muttering "Life debt," quietly under her breath._

_It wasn't long before Hermione found the correct section in her big book._

_**A life debt is created when the debtee, the person who is owed the life debt, saves the debtor, the person who owes the debt, without prior knowledge of the incident that put the debtor in danger. The debtee is not allowed to hold a position of care towards the debtor. Nor can a debt exist between friends and family.**_

_**A life debt can be repaid by the debtor saving the debtee's life or by doing an act that is believed by either the debtee or the debtor to have the consequence of saving the debtee's life.**_

_**If the debtor refuses to help and this leads to the death of the debtee, the debtor will also lose their life. The debtor will survive if magic deems that the debtor did everything within his or her power to save the debtee.**_

_Hermione's eyes went wide. Basically, she had to help Malfoy or risk losing her life._

*hphphp*

Hermione still couldn't believe how a life debt had changed her life; she had spent weeks in the library. Every night she talked to Draco, as they started to get to know each other. It wasn't until a frustrating week that everything came to blow.

*hphphp*

_Hermione shoved her books away from her. "This is pointless. There is nothing in these books to help us."_

_Draco lifted his eyebrows "You thought I would ask you for help if this had been easy?"_

_Hermione shook her head. "No, but I wasn't expecting it to go this badly. I've gotten to the point where I believe that even my gran could do better!" Hermione paused, but after seeing Malfoy's face she added: "And she's dead!"_

*hphphp*

It hadn't taken long for the conversation to change back onto why Draco had asked her to help. He could have kept the life debt for something worse. It had taken her time, but finally, Draco had admitted to having a crush on her since their third year. She also hadn't known what to think, at that point, Draco had been just a friend. Being just friends hadn't lasted much longer as just a few weeks later they had a breakthrough.

*hphphp*

_It was while looking through a very thick book, that Hermione eventually found a starting point. "Draco, I might have something. Here, have a look," she exclaimed, shoving the book underneath Draco's nose. _

"_Destroying a vanishing cabinet," Draco read. "Hermione, you do remember me telling you that I need to fix this cabinet, not destroy it?" he said, rolling his eyes. _

"_Yes, I do. And I also know that sometimes even the wrong train takes us to the right station." Hermione replied. Seeing the confused look on Draco's face, Hermione continued, "It's like potions, to make the antidote, you first need the poison. We do kinda the same in this case. We start with a working cabinet and we look into damaging it. Once we know how the damage was created, we can reverse it and fix it." _

"_Hermione, you're brilliant! I can't believe I didn't think of this. I could kiss you!"_

_Hermione quickly realised that Draco hadn't realised what he had sat, but sitting there, watching the joy in Draco's face at solving a problem, Hermione realised that she had, somewhere along the past weeks, started falling for him. Blocking out her brain, Hermione did the unthinkable and gave Draco a peck on the lips. Before returning to her books, her cheeks as red as the Weasley's hair._

"_Wait a minute, what just happened here?" she heard Draco say before she was absorbed back into her book._

*hphphp*

That had been the start of them. for the first few weeks, everything went great. The time spent in the library was theirs, they got to know each other even better and even talked about the future, being on opposite sides of the war. They both knew that neither would be welcome on the other side, but they kept going. If needed, they would run away after finishing Hogwarts. Everything had gone fine until Harry and Ron came looking for her in the library, just as she was kissing Draco.

"Bloody hell! What is going on here! Why are you kissing that slimy snake?" Ron had shouted, loud enough for the whole library to hear. Half an hour later, all four of them had been kicked out of the library, and neither Harry not Ron would speak to her anymore.

The following weeks had been the worst for her, as no-one in Gryffindor would speak to her anymore. During this time when she wasn't in lessons, she was either in the library or in the Room of Requirements helping Draco. Occasionally if it had been a really bad day she would even stay in the room to sleep, sometimes joined by Draco.

Eventually, Hermione met all of Draco's friends, and she wasn't sure why, but they were all nice to her. To be honest, she had reached the point beyond caring, she just wanted other people to talk to.

When Dumbledore pulled her into his office and threatened to keep her from her parents, 'for their own safety' of course, she broke. Why should she try and be neutral, if the side she didn't want to betray, betrayed her. When the side she didn't want to join, welcomed her with open arms.

It was that night that she told Draco that she would always be at his side. Even if this meant becoming a Death Eater. The Slytherins had been there when she needed them, now she would be there for them.

*hphphp*

Five years later, she still didn't regret that decision. Her parents weren't here for her wedding, but she had tried. Instead of her parents, she had a whole new family here instead. With a deep breath, she turned around and made her way down to the gardens. She would walk herself down the aisle, towards her new future as Mrs Draco Malfoy.


End file.
